The Minister of Agriculture and the Sea, José Manuel Fernandes, criticized this Monday, in the Assembly of the Republic, the decision of the previous Government, led by the Socialist Party (PS), to include the construction of the Pisão Dam in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), considering that the plan’s schedule makes it unfeasible to carry out the project within the stipulated deadlines.
According to the minister, the implementation of the RRP ends next year, which compromises the financial viability of the project in the way it was initially registered. As an alternative, José Manuel Fernandes announced that the financing of the work will be guaranteed through the Sustainable program, with articulation of the Ministries of Economy and Environment.
“The amount is now ensured with the joint effort of ministers Castro Almeida and Maria da Graça Carvalho,” he said, stressing that this reprogramming was necessary due to the strategy adopted by the previous executive.
The minister framed this criticism in a broader assessment of the PS’s performance in the agricultural and water resources sector, questioning the absence of a structured plan during the years in which the party was in government. “They were in government for eight years and didn’t remember to make a ‘Water that Unites’ or a plan for the forest?” he declared.
The Pisão Dam is one of the water infrastructure projects considered strategic for agricultural development and water management in the interior of the country. The change in funding source now implies a new schedule and institutional articulation to ensure the execution of the work.
